In 2021, yoga instructor Monica Ramos packed up her home and went on a cross-country motorcycle adventure with her husband and their eight-year-old daughter. On the trip, Monica learned to incorporate lessons from her yoga practice - like awareness of her body and mindful breathing - into motorcycle riding.
In 2021, yoga instructor Monica Ramos packed up her home and went on a motorcycle adventure with her husband and their eight-year-old daughter. The family of three left their home in Costa Rica and rode for four months: one month to get to Mexico and more than two months exploring every corner of the country. On the trip, Monica learned to incorporate lessons from her yoga practice - like awareness of her body and mindful breathing - into motorcycle riding.
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Shelby Stanger:
I spent May 2022 in Nosara, Costa Rica. I've been going there for years. It's actually where I met my partner Johnny. It's also where I connected with today's guest, Monica Ramos. About a decade ago, Monica used to teach the most beautiful yoga class that I attended whenever I was in town. Monica is an incredible teacher with a calming voice and an introspective awareness. Given her yogi lifestyle, it might come as a surprise that Monica is also a pretty badass motorcycle rider.
Monica Ramos:
Let's take a moment and just take a few breaths and find our body in this space, because this is definitely part of the story and it's about embodiment. And moments where I would feel butterflies in my belly, kind of like now in front of this beautiful microphone and you... Let's just inhale through our nose, and as you exhale, letting out a deep sigh. Yeah. I can sense a little fluttering in my breath, so we'll take three more breaths like that. Just inhaling and exhaling.
Shelby Stanger:
The loud rev of a combustion engine may not seem like the most zen sound, but Monica told me that she has to be extremely present when she's riding her bike. She often uses yoga breathing techniques to help her stay safe and grounded on the road. In July of 2021, Monica decided to go after one of her wildest ideas. Her husband Mario, and their eight year old daughter, Magenta, rode motorcycles from Costa Rica to Mexico. I'm Shelby Stanger and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Studio's production.
Monica Ramos. Welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living.
Monica Ramos:
Thank you, Shelby. It's nice to be here.
Shelby Stanger:
After the pandemic, during it, but sort of when the borders started opening up, you had this really wild idea to ride a motorcycle with your kid and your partner to Mexico from Costa Rica. Was that the idea?
Monica Ramos:
Yeah, and there were two motorcycles. I rode my own motorcycle, and my husband and my daughter rode on his motorcycle, and the idea was to change it up. We've been in Costa Rica in Nosara for a very long time, two, three decades, to see some of the world. And so, the wild idea was to step outside of our comfort zone and travel with our child by land.
Shelby Stanger:
What brought you to Costa Rica in the first place? What's your background?
Monica Ramos:
I must say it was fate. I was invited to come down here for a vacation, and on the third day of my vacation, I knew. I had seen so much magic here in Nosara. Spinner dolphins and the most beautiful beaches and surfing, and I knew I had to move here. So, I went back to the States, sold my car, quit my job, broke up with my boyfriend, and moved back down here within a month.
Shelby Stanger:
We have never talked about riding a motorcycle on this podcast, and it's something that I find it fascinating. One, motorcycles are more eco-friendly than cars, so there is a sustainable element about it. They're super dangerous, but they also look really fun.
Monica Ramos:
Well, I'll tell you what, we wear all the gear all the time-
Shelby Stanger:
And what is all the gear? Pads?
Monica Ramos:
We wear motorcycle boots, knee pads, hip pads, chest back, shoulders, elbows, gloves, helmets. You wouldn't even recognize me if you saw me on the road. And we're actually... A motorcyclist is much more aware of their surroundings than, say if you're in a car and you're in your comfort zone and you're checking the radio and your texts, and it's a lot easier to get distracted in a car. Which, actually, that's why it's dangerous to ride a motorcycle, is because of people not paying attention on the road.
Shelby Stanger:
When did you first learn to ride a motorcycle?
Monica Ramos:
Yeah. It was my 42nd birthday and I did a two day course. I knew everything about motorcycles because of my partner, and then we ended up going to Italy for the summer, and I learned to ride around the very narrow and scary roads of Lake Como, which built up a lot of confidence. Came back here and rode for about a year. We did have a dirt track and we would ride dirt bikes around, and that actually made me a much better rider. The pandemic hit, nobody was doing anything, nobody was riding. And once things started to open up, we started to take rides to Playa Negra, places that we could do in a couple of hours back and forth. And I realized how much I needed to practice, because the motorcycle that I ride, which is a Ducati scrambler desert sled is tall. It's a taller bike. And so, I had to learn to have confidence on the bike even though I couldn't reach. So, that's really where all of this started.
Shelby Stanger:
As things started to open up, Monica and her husband, Mario, felt the itch to go on an adventure. Riding their motorcycles seemed like a wild way to see the world, but it can be pretty dangerous. It was especially nerve-wracking to be traveling with their eight year old daughter through the back roads of Central America. But for Monica and her family, the idea to take this trip was about much more than catching a thrill.
What made you guys have the wild idea of just taking this trip? It wasn't like you were going to San Jose or a couple beaches over in Costa Rica. You're like, "No, we're going to go to Mexico.",
Monica Ramos:
Well, I'm originally from Mexico City and my partner's from Italy. And we've spent the past eight years with my daughter taking her every year to Italy. But she had never experienced my culture, and my family and our heritage. And so, we had this wild idea that we would go to Mexico but by land and on two wheels. And everybody thought we were crazy and everybody begged us not to go, considering the situation in Central America and Mexico. My partner, he's done this trip two times previous, so he had the confidence of knowing that it's possible, and he would tell me people are good, in general.
Shelby Stanger:
People are good. Okay. You had these fears. Did you have your own fears?
Monica Ramos:
Oh, yeah. I had tremendous fears and that's why at the beginning I had us do some breathing together because that's really what got me through every day. I was afraid a lot of the times because I was learning to get comfortable on the bike, stopping to get gas. I had to roll in with a bunch of cars all around and nail that landing of getting in the position to get the gas. And so, the biggest fear, of course, was taking my only child through and having something happen to her. I was afraid of people. Being kidnapped or assaulted or robbed. And my partner, he was afraid of getting in an accident, which in retrospect makes more sense. It's more likely that you're going to get in an accident than you would getting assaulted, but that's not what we hear in the news.
And so, on a daily basis, as soon as I got on the bike, I would start to practice my breathing, my yogic breathing, and draw in my attention. And all the things that I've shared with you in yoga classes, I would do in real time riding 60 kilometers an hour or whatever. Just getting into my body, this embodiment, and wiggling my toes, and really connecting with my environment and seeing the trees, and the land, and the sky, and making it a ceremony, really.
Shelby Stanger:
Wow. Okay. You have this mantra, "It's be here now," or something like that.
Monica Ramos:
Yeah. With your breath, you inhale, "I," exhale, "Am." Inhale, "Here now in this. I am here now in this." I would do that for 20 minutes and sometimes I would pray and sometimes, and not in a religious way, but really connecting with my environment and saying, "Please protect us." I had songs that I would sing that would just come up spontaneously. And it's funny because we had intercoms in the helmets, so I'd have to disconnect myself to go through my morning ritual on the motorcycle, and it was awesome. It brought me into full presence and appreciation. I kept aligning with joy because that's why we were doing this.
Shelby Stanger:
As a mom, I'm sure there's moms listening being like, "What? You took your nine year old daughter on a motorcycle to Mexico?" How did you prepare? Prepare for this trip? How did you prepare your nine year old, Magenta, who was eight at the time for this trip? And why did she want to go?
Monica Ramos:
That's a great question because we tried to talk her out of it. At least, I did. Mario didn't. But we offered her the opportunity to go to her grandmother's house in Florida and have unlimited iPad time and shopping sprees. And she's like, "No, I want to be with you." And she's always been very close to us. And so, we prepared by buying lots of gear. We should have taken some rides to prepare ourselves, but I was working too much and was just in go mode. So, finally when we took off, it was wild that we had really no preparation other than gear. We pretty much gave away everything. Sold a few things like the car and some things of value, but we gave away everything and kept two T-shirts, two pairs of jeans, two dresses, two shorts and two pairs of shoes, and that's it. And anything we could take on the motorcycle is all that we had.
Shelby Stanger:
When we come back, Monica talks about the interesting characters she met along the way, what it was like to come back home. And she shares her biggest takeaways from her family's adventure. In late summer of 2021, Monica Ramos, her husband Mario and their daughter Magenta, took an 8000 mile motorcycle trip from Costa Rica to Mexico. They initially set off in late July, but they had a bit of a false start. Some problems with the title of Monica's bike, sent them back to Nosara for a couple of weeks. Finally, they hit the road for real in August 2021. From there, the motorcycle journey was all blue skies and open road.
There had to have been some memorable moments.
Monica Ramos:
Yeah. We were in Mexico and we were leaving Acapulco area, and I had heard that we were coming up to Narco territory. And so as we were riding, we stopped to get gas, and this was always an issue. Mario has a bigger bike, and so he has a bigger gas tank and I'm always the one that's running out of gas. And so, we see a gas station, we stop and we pull over, and there were other motorcyclists there. And they were really intrigued because at first they weren't sure if Magenta was just a very short woman on the back of Mario's bike. Once she took off her helmet, they were like, "That's a kid." And so, they came over and talked to us. And these guys pretty much set up the rest of our mapping for the rest of our trip.
Shelby Stanger:
They set up your route.
Monica Ramos:
Our route, Thank you.
Shelby Stanger:
It's okay. You speak a different language most of the time.
Monica Ramos:
They set up our route. They told us, "Go to this stop, stay here. It's only a three hour ride, but then the next day you're going to have to do a six hour ride because you do not stop on that road. You just keep going, keep going, because that is well known Narco territory." I got to tell you, that ride was so beautiful because it is a place where nobody stops and it was like a garden. Everything was just flowers and butterflies and birds, and it was like going through the secret garden.
Shelby Stanger:
But it's really nice, because every day when you have a journey like this that's a distance journey, every day you have purpose to get from point A to point B. That's a beautiful thing.
Monica Ramos:
You nailed it. That is the simplicity of life and we've gotten so complex in all of the things that we do and how we live our day to day. And you have to just get from point A to point B and make it as efficient and joyful as possible.
Shelby Stanger:
Yeah, making it joyful, that's a key. I'm curious how you made it joyful. You sung a little bit, what did you sing?
Monica Ramos:
When I was feeling fear, I would just make up some songs of about feeling supported and protected, and call on my ancestors and call on angels.
Shelby Stanger:
What else did you guys do to find joy? Did you stop for ice cream from Magenta wherever you could find it? Because you got to keep a kid happy too.
Monica Ramos:
Absolutely. One of my biggest goals was to find a destination that had a pool so she could play and have fun. And one of the things that was really funny and joyful was listening to her narrate in real time, because we were all connected through these intercoms on our helmets. And so, she's this eight year old, nine year old, seeing all these things for the first time and just having her narrate was hilarious.
Shelby Stanger:
What would she say?
Monica Ramos:
She would just make up jokes and she would say things that were... As kids are without a filter and real.
Shelby Stanger:
Did you have an "Oh, shit" moment?
Monica Ramos:
This was... We were a few days into our trip, we had passed through Nicaragua and we were in Honduras. And we follow this Spanish guy, Charlie Cena one on YouTube and he's always going offroad. And Maria loves offroad. So he is like, "Let's go offroad." And I was like, "You want to take an alternative route in Hondruas with our child?" And he's like, "Yeah, what could go wrong?" Well, I'll tell you, we rode for 10 minutes, it started raining. We had a pullover on a very narrow road and put on all our gear, and trucks were going by. You have to pull over, put on your pants, your jacket, maybe something for your boots, another layer on top of all of the layers. And remember, we're still in the tropics and so it's hot, it's hot. Oh, it's so hot, you're sweating. It's like a sauna inside.
So, we're riding and it stops raining and we're like, "Okay, keep going, keep going." And we get to a point where the GPS is telling us to take a left. And it didn't seem like it was the right... It made us question. So, we asked an old guy that was near on the road and we said, "We have to take this left here. We're trying to go to this destination." And he says, "No, no, no, no, no." He goes, "Turn around, go back." He's like, "That's off road. You have to pass through rivers. It's a lot of hills and mountains." He's like, "Go back." And we had already traveled something like 60 kilometers so we were not wanting to go back.
Shelby Stanger:
Why is it that we dove this instinct inside of us to not want to go back?
Monica Ramos:
Yeah, we were not wanting to turn back around. And funny thing is a young man came up and saw our motorcycles and he was like, "What? With these motorcycles you can do this road, no problem." He's like, "You guys, these motorcycles will get you through anything." And of course, that's what we wanted to hear. And Magenta, this is a funny thing that she always says, she's like, "The biggest takeaway was always listen to the old guy." So, of course we didn't listen to the old guy. We went through and it was the most challenging road that we'd ever been on. Say 10 minutes into the ride, we get to a muddy patch where it was inclined, it was going uphill. And Mario goes up quick and then I take what I know, which is press into your pegs, look where you want to go. And I went for it, but it was so muddy and slippery that I fell. And the bike was fine. I bent a couple of important things, but it was fine. But there were two old guys, like the old guys from the Muppets that used to sit up in the balcony and heckle everyone. Well, they were just sitting there with their arms crossed, laughing at me.
Mario comes over and he tries to help me pick up the motorcycle. But because of the incline and the position, we both fall flat on our faces twice in the mud, completely covered. And the best part, one of the wives of the two comes out and smacks her husband on the arm and says, "Get your butt off that stool and help them out." And that was the only muddy part that we had on the whole trip. But it was such a challenging road. And one of the really sweet parts is that I was having a lot of negative self-talk, and sometimes it would be vocal, and of course my family could hear it. And there were a lot of bad words that I was spewing at myself, really, because I was having a hard time. And Magenta would say, "Hey, mom, you got this. Mom, I believe in you. You got this. Go, mom. Go, mom." And she was my biggest cheerleader.
Shelby Stanger:
I love that. What did she say to you in Spanish? Go Mom. How does she say that?
Monica Ramos:
Well, she always speaks to me in English.
Shelby Stanger:
Oh, she does? That's really cute.
Monica Ramos:
Yeah, she's just a real kid who real is able to drop into any situation. And when her dad and I say are at our wits end because we are nervous or concerned or whatnot, she was always the one that kept her cool. And she was always the one that was like, "Hey, guys." She did the same thing to Mario once when we were in Mexico and he was in a deep mud pit and she said, "Dad, you came through here, we can make it back." And she very matter of factly, very mature for an eight year old turning nine.
Magenta:
Go mama, go mama, go. You got this, mama. You got it.
Shelby Stanger:
With Magenta riding on the back of Mario's motorcycle, it was almost as if Monica had her own personal cheerleader by her side and she definitely appreciated the support. Traveling by motorcycle can be stressful. The bikes are heavy and the roads in Central America tend to be bumpy and winding. It took roughly a month to get from Costa Rica to Mexico. Once there, the family explored Mexico for two months, and returned to Costa Rica Around Christmas time.
You guys were prepared to just leave Costa Rica?
Monica Ramos:
We were going to give it a try. We were going to try out Mexico for a year. And we were quick to realize what a special place it is here in Costa Rica, which we already knew because my husband is now a naturalized Costa Rican citizen. And my daughter is born here and I've been here for many years. But Latin America is gorgeous, beautiful. The people are very special, but the security that you have here in Costa Rica is incomparable. Not having an organized army for 70 years creates a different type of human being. And this [inaudible 00:21:19] is real to them. This [inaudible 00:21:21] pure life, is that the essence of what it is to be in Costa Rica. And when we were traveling through Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, people are so kind and so attentive and really love to connect, but their life has been really difficult. And I don't want to make it sound like life isn't difficult here in Costa Rica, but when you feel safety, when you feel like you're safe in your home, in your country, it's very special.
Shelby Stanger:
Okay. You do this adventure and then you've got a couple months in Mexico. But then you have to go back. Did you ride your motorcycles back?
Monica Ramos:
That's another great question. A lot of people were like, "Did you fly back?" And I'm like, "No." We did fly Magenta back so that we could do the trip quick. And we did the trip in seven days, five borders. It was wild.
Shelby Stanger:
Exhausting, I bet. People don't understand that riding a motorcycle is a huge workout.
Monica Ramos:
It's very physical. Absolutely. It is a constant practice of noticing your posture, noticing where you're slouching, what you're doing to your body and trying to continually be in the right position so that you're not putting more unnecessary attacks on your body.
Shelby Stanger:
But you also have to be aware of where you're going, stopping. Your adrenaline is proprioception. Everything is engaged all times.
Monica Ramos:
Exactly. And that's why it's become the best spiritual practice for me because it is about presence. It is about just being in the moment and really paying attention to your surroundings and to yourself, in particular. We have to start with ourselves. Be in touch with yourself. What am I feeling right now? How am I feeling? Okay, what do I need to adjust? What kind of breath work do I need to do? And how do I need to connect?
Shelby Stanger:
Do you have a favorite moment from the trip?
Monica Ramos:
I think the... It's threaded throughout the whole entire trip and it's the connection that I spent with my family 24/7. Because, of course, you choose this family, but when do you ever spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for two and a half months with your family in that way? And we literally spent all our time together, and I realized just so many beautiful aspects of my family. And so, that was threaded throughout the whole trip.
Shelby Stanger:
Man, on a motorcycle. How intimate. With your kid. Your kid will never forget that. I mean, did she go back to school? And kids are like, "What did you do for your summer vacation?" And she was like, "I rode a motorcycle in Mexico."
Monica Ramos:
Yeah, I think that in the future she'll realize what a big deal this is. And right now she's just, "These are the parents I have and this is the wacky stuff that they do."
Shelby Stanger:
What did Mario take away from it all? Did you ask him?
Monica Ramos:
He wants to be on the road forever and he loves it. Yeah, he loves it and I must say I love it. And we didn't think Magenta would miss it, but now that a few months have passed, we'll ask her, "Do you want to go on the road again?" And she says "Yes," which we never thought she would want to do, because it was intense for her. Yeah, Mario wants to stay on the road forever and we are hoping to be able to do another trip at some point, maybe through South America.
Shelby Stanger:
After a wild idea, there's some sort of let down, often. And it's nothing you can really prepare for, just sort of happens. How did you transition to come back and then do something a little bit different?
Monica Ramos:
Well, it was really, really rocky. It was definitely a rocky landing. Funny enough, we traveled for four months and I landed in [inaudible 00:25:23] and got COVID. And then couldn't find a house, and it was high season, and it was just a lot of moving parts, so it was really rocky. It was certainly something that was a different challenge that we had been through, but we had been so unified by our experience and anytime that we would start to get overwhelmed, it was this just this moment where we would look at each other and be, "Remember what we did, remember who we are. This is nothing. We can handle anything."
Shelby Stanger:
It sounds like the lessons and what you took from that adventure will just continue to enhance your life today. Whether you do something like that again or not, it's always going to be there and it's always going to feed the next thing.
Monica Ramos:
Very perceptive. Yeah. Every day that I ride through the forest to come down to the beach, which I have a 30 minute ride from the beach down from the mountain, and I feel like I'm on my motorcycle trip, although I'm riding a little side by side at this time for the dogs in the back. But I remember what it's like to connect to the birds, and connect to my breath, and connect to the environment that I'm experiencing, and it really becomes magical. And it goes right back to what we were saying about being fully present in the moment. What can we take from being right here, right now in this?
Shelby Stanger:
If you could leave people with one piece of advice about finding more joy, living more wildly, they kind of go hand in hand. What's your advice to people who want to go do something a little wild, which maybe will bring them more joy?
Monica Ramos:
That question brings some emotion to me. I feel some tears welling up in my eyes because I feel that we continuously have the opportunity to feel more joy or really go into wild ideas, whether they're small or big, but we sometimes make excuses. And so, my advice would be to pay attention when we're making excuses and maybe just take that step forward.
Shelby Stanger:
Riding motorcycles and practicing yoga might seem like opposite activities. One is quiet and slow, while the other tends to be loud and fast. For Monica, the two are like yin and yang. They complement each other. In both practices, she maintains a calm energy, an intense awareness of her body, and slow mindful breaths. I think there's a lot to learn from Monica's practice when we go after a wild idea. How can we stay centered along our journey?
Monica Ramos, thank you so much for coming on Wild Ideas Worth living. I love being your yoga student and I'm totally inspired by your badass motorcycle riding skills. If you want to learn more about Monica, you can follow her on Instagram at MoonRamos_. That's M-O-O-N-R-A-M-O-S with an underscore at the end. Special thanks to the Harmony Hotel and Sunset Shack in Nosara Costa Rica, for an incredible opportunity to spend an entire month in the jungle working on my book, and hanging out with amazing people like Monica.
Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI Podcast Network. It's hosted by me Shelby Stanger, written and edited by Annie Fasler and Sylvia Thomas of Puddle Creative. Our senior producer is Chelsea Davis, and our associate producer is Jenny Barber. Our executive producers are Paolo Moola and Joe Crosby. As always, we love it when you follow the show, rate it and review it wherever you listen. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.